The Rangers are now 1 1/2 games behind the Red Sox for the AL wild card lead.

Mark Teixeira collected a pair of hits and drove in both runs for the Yankees, who have dropped three of five.

A.J. Burnett (10-8) fanned a season-high 12 batters over six innings but took the loss after allowing three runs on two hits with three walks.

"It was a tough one. I wasn't able to get the win for us," said a somber Burnett."

Burnett sent down the first 11 men he faced until a two-out walk in the fourth to Josh Hamilton. That was followed by another base-on-balls to Nelson Cruz before Kinsler slammed the first pitch he saw into the seats in left for a 3-1 Rangers advantage.

"It turned on one pitch," said Kinsler of his quick at-bat. "You gotta battle because of the two guys in front of me. I got lucky enough to get a hold of the heater."

In the home half, Teixeira singled in Derek Jeter to cut the Bombers' deficit to one and chased Nippert in the process. However, Grilli entered with runners on the corners and retired Alex Rodriguez.

"It's something I've learned to thrive on, sometimes you have to come into the middle of a game, the middle of the inning," Grilli said of his introduction to the game. "I relished the challenge against Alex and it was a situation where I wanted to get our offense back out there as soon as I could."

Davis hit a three-run shot off Phil Coke with none out in the seventh for a 6-2 Texas edge, and Kinsler added a solo shot with two down in the eighth which stretched the edge to five.

C.J. Wilson held the home team off the board in the seventh then retired the side in order in the eighth. Frank Francisco worked around a Johnny Damon single and walk to Rodriguez to turn in a scoreless ninth.

"We wish we could have gotten more runs off of him (Nippert)," Damon admitted. "We got him out of the game but the reliever came in and did a great job. We never like to strand runners on base, but their guys came in and just threw good pitches."

The Yanks got off to a good start, pushing across a run in the first on Teixeira's RBI single. Damon worked a one-out walk and stole second before scoring on the hit.